More recipes

I'm sure you have all been waiting for my latest recipe finds. Well, here it is so you can stop drooling on the keyboard already.

I've been prowling the vegan web world looking for some tasty recipes that don't involve tofu. Not that I have anything against tofu but a girl needs variety, right? Let me first say that vegans are a rare breed with some FASCINATING websites. And by fascinating, I mean scary. If you can get past the "fascinating" content, the recipes are quite good. Now I don't know about you but I find about a 50% success rate with new recipes. So imagine my surprise when I found winner after winner. Woohoo!

Without further ado, here are some fav new resources for recipes:

If you can get past the lectures and language, I highly recommend the book "Skinny Bitch in the Kitch." Their macaroni & 4 cheeses is to die for. (Which is quite a bit more pc than their description.) And it's made with pureed winter squash so I can justify eating the entire casserole dish in one sitting. (With some soy hot dogs of course cause what is mac & cheese without hot dogs?)

I like the variety of recipes on vegcooking.com. Since the volume was overwhelming, a lot of my favorite recipes are from their two week sample Vegan menu. Mama's Mock Meatloaf is so dense and satisfying, you'd swear it was made with the old ground cow.

One brilliant mom made a New Year's Resolution to cook dinner in her CrockPot every day for a year. And like the good Samaritan that she is, she is sharing the recipes and results with us. Although nearly any recipe can be converted to vegetarian, she does me the favor of labelling them for easy sorting. Her CrockPot Tamale Pie recipe is hearty comfort food. (I see a trend...meatloaf, mac & cheese, tamale pie...all comfort foods. Hmmm.) I substituted soy cheese for the cheddar, rice milk for the milk and Ener-G for the egg to make it Vegan. See? Almost all recipes are convertible. Yipee!

And I'm not done yet. These next few websites are new finds that I'm excited to browse. I have hand picked them because they solve particular needs that I find intriguing...

One challenge that I've found with vegetarian or vegan recipes is their fat content. I guess the theory is that if you're eating nothing but vegetables and soy, you don't need to worry about calories? Well I for one managed to pack on plenty of lbs as a vegetarian. Enter my hero, fat free vegan.

But sometimes, a girl wants to indulge. I'm my father's daughter and thus have an ice cream addiction. So what's a lactose intolerant girl to do? 1) Suffer and force family to endure ice cream withdrawl symptoms. Not pretty. 2) Buy the highly acclaimed "Vice Cream" book. Christmas is coming. (hint, hint) 3) Experiment with recipes from the ultimate Vegan Ice Cream blog. Free and tasty. Sweet!

Though I'm too lazy to pack my own lunch, I am drawn to the creativity and recipes on Vegan Lunch Box. I mean, just look at how cute CORN can be! And anyone who posts a recipe for Vegan Twinkies is a-ok in my book.

So what have we learned from this awesome post? Blogs are good. They're not all filled with dribble about reality tv. Some of them actually give you stuff that you want. Like tasty, tasty recipes. Enjoy.